Mission Programmes
Explore the European Space Agency's Earth Observation satellite missions. Learn all about ESA's dedicated Earth Explorers or collaborations with other agencies through the Third Party Missions programme.
Earth Explorers
ESA's Earth Explorer missions are dedicated to addressing key scientific challenges identified by the EO community....
EXPLORE MOREHeritage Missions
ESA's Heritage missions programme preserves 30 years of historical data from more than 45 satellite missions that are no longer operational....
EXPLORE MOREThird Party Missions
Through the TPM programme, ESA offers data from a wide range of EO satellite missions developed and operated by other agencies....
EXPLORE MOREEarth Watch
ESA's Earth Watch programme consists of missions developed and operated in partnership with other organisations....
EXPLORE MORECopernicus Sentinels
The Copernicus Sentinel missions are state of the art Earth observation satellites developed as part of an initiative between ESA and the EC....
EXPLORE MOREFeatured Missions
Explore the European Space Agency's Earth Observation satellite missions. Learn all about ESA's dedicated Earth Explorers or collaborations with other agencies through the Third Party Missions programme
EarthCARE
Current
Earth Explorers
EarthCARE examines the role clouds and aerosols play in trapping infrared radiation emitted from Earth's surface....
Swarm
Current
Earth Explorers
Swarm is dedicated to creating a highly detailed survey of Earth’s geomagnetic field and its temporal evolution as well as the electric fiel...
CryoSat
Current
Earth Explorers
CryoSat determines variations in the thickness of continental ice sheets and marine ice cover. Europe's first ice mission is an advanced rad...
SMOS
Current
Earth Explorers
The Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission is dedicated to making global observations of soil moisture over land and salinity over ...
Biomass
Upcoming
Earth Explorers
The objective of the Biomass mission is to determine the global distribution of forest biomass....
FLEX
Upcoming
Earth Explorers
The FLEX mission will provide global maps of vegetation fluorescence, which can be converted into an indicator of photosynthetic activity....
PROBA-V
Current
Earth Watch
The PROBA-V mission provides multispectral images to study the evolution of the vegetation cover on a daily and global basis....
PROBA-1
Current
Third Party Missions
PROBA-1 is a technology demonstration satellite that later became an operational Earth observation mission....
Aeolus
Past
Earth Explorers
The Aeolus mission which was launched into space on 22 August 2018 and was retired on 30 April 2023, provided global observations of wind pr...
GOCE
Past
Heritage Missions
ESA's Gravity field and Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) mission mapped Earth's geoid very accurately, opening a window into Earth's interi...
Envisat
Past
Heritage Missions
Envisat was ESA's successor to ERS. Envisat carried ten instruments aboard for a wide range of Earth observing fields. The mission was opera...
ERS
Past
Heritage Missions
The ERS programme was composed of two missions, ERS-1 and ERS-2, which together observed the Earth for 20 years, from 1991 to 2011....
EXPLORE OUR MISSIONS IN 3D
Interact with 3D models of ESA satellites, which visualise their design and payload, and see case studies highlighting data applications.
Discover Latest Data
AVHRR L1B/1C Local Area Coverage Imagery
Level-1B This collection is composed of AVHRR L1B products (1.1 km) reprocessed from the NOAA POES and Metop AVHRR sensors data acquired at ...
Landsat 5 TM Europe and North Africa Coverage 1984-85
This collections contains Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery acquired over Europe and North Africa from April 1984 to December 1985. The...
Landsat 5 TM Europe and North Africa Coverage 1986-89
This collections contains Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery acquired over Europe and North Africa from January 1986 to November 1989. T...
Landsat 5 TM Europe and North Africa Coverage 1995-98
This collections contains Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery acquired over Europe and North Africa from January 1995 to December 1998. T...